I think this falls under “face shield development”, understanding face shields to be cloth or similar structures over the nose and mouth to reduce the number of viruses you may spread as a pre-symptomatic or non-symptomatic carrier. [As an aside, if you have a pollen or smoke allergy the face shield may also catch some pollen/smoke, reducing or eliminating sneezes, to the great ease of all around you.]
Background: I am a US Navy civilian employee working mostly (60-75%) at the office, with some (20-30%) telework, and the remainder leave (mostly admin for health & safety, some personal so I can work at home and shop during business hours because of a curfew). This week, as recommended by the CDC and the Department of Defense, I began wearing homemade cloth face shields to work. While I am in my office alone most of the day, I spent about 3 to 6 hours within 10 feet and about 2-3 hours within 6 feet of someone else, 'cause that’s part of my job to enable others. In abundance of caution, I kept it on when at the office except at lunch (which I ate in my car in the parking lot) or for short periods in my office either while the door was closed or I was taking a brief sip from my coffee mug (which I only did when no one was in or near my office door).
Problem: The biggest problem I encountered using the cloth face shield was that my breath would slip out the space between my nose and cheekbones, enter the area between my eyes and glasses (spectacles), and fog the glasses. Logically, should I also happen to be unknowingly COVID-19 infected, this would allow a path for water droplets with the virus to spread.
Solutions:
My initial solution was to twist the elastics around, so the elastic stress going over my nose went under my ear, and that going under my chin when over my ear. Better in terms of fog in my glasses, but far from comfortable, at least as the shields I used were built.
After seeing small metal plates on some fancier shields and masks today, I thought about sewing similar metal plates into my face shield. A few minutes later, I realized that all I needed was a bit of wire. I removed an approximately 8" piece of wire from an old coffee twist tie that was in my office, and inserted it into the top seam of my face shield. A few minutes of adjustment later, I was working fog-free!
The wire I used was similar in properties to fine floral wire. If you can get solid core aluminum wire in the 16-20AWG range, this would:
- be easy to insert into face shields
- provide a good balance of stiffness vs pliability
- not rust when you wash the mask in soap and water to prepare it for re-use as recommended by the CDC
Hoping this helps!
On another front: I actually found 60+% ethanol hand sanitizer at my local grocery store today! I bought the (limit of) 2, one for my car, and one for @PereBear’s. (We’re both still working outside the home, and this is when you most need a non-soap solution in that situation!)